Strikeforce: Nick Diaz Vs. KJ Noons II: Five Things To Watch

Strikeforce: Nick Diaz Vs. KJ Noons II: Five Things To Watch

San Jose, California has a freight train coming to town, and it's scheduled to arrive on Saturday at the HP Pavilion.

In a rematch of their 2007 matchup, MMA badboy Nick Diaz with face off against the always outspoken KJ Noons.

In their last fight, Noons was able win due to a referee stoppage from a cut that Diaz suffered on his head.

Three years later, and at one weight class heavier, Diaz and Noons go at it again to finally settle who's the man.

Bleacher Report takes a look at five things that you should watch for in anticipation of this matchup.

Superscar

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Ah, the scar tissue. It has been an factor with Diaz for years. He's had plastic surgery to remove some of it, yet his face still resembles a Halloween mask.

If Noons is able to effectively use his striking the way he did in their first meeting, this might pose a problem for the Strikeforce Welterweight Champ.

Strike For Strike

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Will Diaz suffer the same fate as he did in '07?

Noons and Diaz have interesting striking styles.

With Noons you have crisp and traditional boxing technique from his years spent as a pro boxer, amassing a 12-2 record.

With Diaz, his effective punches in bunches approach often stifles and frustrates opponents.

It will be interesting to see how much Diaz has improved in the three years since their last meeting.

Diaz's Ground Game

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While used in small doses over has last few fights, Nick Diaz possesses an excellent ground game.

A BJJ black belt under Cesar Gracie, Diaz knows how to use his skill to a degree which is effective for MMA, and Noons will need to be cautious of that.

Size

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Nick Diaz is pretty big for his division. He's got the nearly an 80" reach which he uses incredibly well against his opponents, and probably will not hesitate to use against the smaller Noons.

If Diaz can use that reach to get Noons to back up a bit against the cage, he can then lean some that 170+ pounds up on him to set up for a easy takedown in order to work his ground game.

The Post Fight

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Will we see a repeat of the post fight brawl from May?

Nick Diaz is not a PR person's dream. He's about as marketable as a bag of rusty nails, and it's mainly due to his thug-like attitude.

In May he was involved in a post-fight brawl with Jason Miller and a few members of his crew stemming from Miller jumping in the cage to interrupt Jake Sheilds' post fight interview.

We hope that Strikeforce has learned the lessons from May, and beefed up security around the cage once this fight is over.

Follow Will Anderson on Twitter

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Will Anderson is growing into a juggernaut on the MMA media scene. While his articles are both thought provoking and entertaining, it's his drive to share his passion of the sport with others by creating a platform for other aspiring writers to display their work.

Will is a contributor to both RealSportsNet.com and Bleacher Report; in addition, he has also made guest appearances on The Sprawl N Brawl internet radio show